Objectives Working outside the workplace and ordinary work hours has become common for a larger part of the working population. The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between working after-hours and employee burnout, musculoskeletal pain, detachment and work–home conflict, delineating the independent effect of four different types of after-hours work, and the moderating role of work-time control.

Methods The data comprised longitudinal questionnaire data from 1465 full-time employees in Norway across four waves (2021–2022). We examined the link between four types of after-hours work: (i) long daily work hours (>10 hours); (ii) late evening work (after 21:00 hours); (iii) quick returns (<11 hours continued rest); and (iv) long weekly work hours (>40 hours a week) and employee health and wellbeing (ie, work–home conflict, detachment, burnout, and musculoskeletal pain), in fixed effects models. We stratified the analyses by working-time control.

Results The results support a link between late evening work, long daily and weekly work, and higher work–home conflict and lower detachment as well as between weekly work hours and higher burnout. The findings yielded limited support for work-time control as a moderating factor; the link between quick returns and burnout was only evident for employees with below-average work-time control.

Conclusions The four types of after-hours work were all independently related to at least one employee outcome, although the link with quick returns was only evident when work-time control was below average. The results are important for practitioners aiming to implement family-friendly and healthy practices.

Key terms after-hours work; burnout; detachment; extended daily work hour; extended work hour; fixed-effect study; longitudinal; Norway; Norwegian worker; pain; quick return; work–home conflict; working time

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